MAY 26. The following associates were elected: William Henry Robinson, esq., Air-street, Piccadilly. Edward Matthew Ward, esq., A.R.A., Inverness-road, Bayswater. The following presents were received: From J. O. Halliwell, esq. A Few Remarks on the Emendation, "Who Smothers her with Painting?" in the Play of "Cymbeline", by From J. Y. Akerman, esq. Celtic Remains, from a Tumulus near Scarborough. By Mr. Tissiman. 4to. Mr. F. J. Baigent, of Winchester, made the following communication: "Wall Paintings in Bramdean Church, Hampshire."—"The village of Bramdean is situated nine miles from Winchester, and the parish is rather well known now, from the discovery of a Roman villa, with tessellated pavements, about twenty years since, which are still preserved. The church consists of a chancel, nave, and porch, with a small bellcot on the western gable of the nave, and is dedicated to St. Simon and St. Jude. The nave is Norman, with debased windows, and an early doorway on the north side, with a corresponding one in the opposite wall, now blocked up. The chancel arch is transition, and was formerly ornamented with colour (red); but, so little remained, that no pattern could be traced when it was cleaned of the whitewash at the same time as the chancel. The chancel is early English: in each of the side walls are two plain lancet windows, and in the east wall a double lancet. The accompanying pattern (see plate 26) extends over the entire walls of the chancel, and from which the whitewash was removed by the late rector, the Rev. Charles Walters, now rector of Wyke, from whose tracings I have made the drawing, as I preferred this to tracing it myself, as Mr. Walters has retouched, or in other words, repainted it on the walls. The portion represented in my sketch covers a space of four feet nine inches by three feet one inch; and this, I believe, is greater than diaper patterns usually extend over. It consists of three colours only, light red, Indian red, and a grey. The leaves and flowers are painted in Indian red, and the stems in light red, surrounded with grey borders, in such a manner as renders it not unlikely this pattern might have been copied from a glass-painter's design, the grey outlines being intended to represent the glazing or lead work; but at least it must be regarded as a somewhat remarkable pattern, as well as interesting, and will help to illustrate the manner of enriching the walls of our churches in the thirteenth century, to which period I ascribe it. On one VOL. VIII. 21 side, in a brown outline, is represented a thurible, with the smoking incense issuing from the perforations of the cover; but there are no indications of the chains." Mr. Baigent also communicated that he had, with the incumbent's permission, commenced an examination of one of the walls of St. John's church, in Winchester. He has already laid bare several square feet, and discovered two figures, one representing St. Andrew the apostle. He has also developed a sitting figure of the Virgin and Child, as large as life, two angels, a curious border of the time of Elizabeth, over an older painting, and a painting in oil, representing the interior of a building, having four windows inclosed within a four-centered arch, terminating in a canopy, on each side of which is the kneeling figure of an angel. This, Mr. Baigent thinks, is of the time of Henry VIII. All these will, when the work is completed, be communicated to the Association, and appear in the Journal. Mr. Wagstaff, through Mr. Scott, exhibited two beautiful handles of Oriental weapons, one of a krise, the other of a similar instrument from the Malay peninsula; upon a singularity of which, Mr. Cuming remarked that the workmanship was Chinese, although the weapon was not belonging to that country. These exhibitions gave rise to a discussion on the difficulty of ascertaining the date to which Oriental antiquities belonged; upon which Mr. Pettigrew remarked, that lately reading sir John Davis's new work on China, during the War and since the Peace", he had met with a passage of interest on this point. Some years since, Mr. Pettigrew had shewn to sir John Davis a Chinese perfume bottle which had been obtained from a tomb at Thebes: it bore an inscription in an ancient Chinese character, and sir John Davis figured the bottle in his work on China. Doubts were entertained as to its antiquity, but the majority of Chinese scholars and antiquaries were favourable to its early character. Other specimens had been met with, and it would appear that sir John Davis had procured one, for he states (vol. ii, p. 65) that upon showing one to the intendant of Shanghae, he pronounced in favour of its antiquity, on account of the smoothness of the standing part, which he said was always rough in modern china. Mr. Adey Repton communicated further remarks on barrows and their contents, which were referred to be embodied into his previous observations, and to appear in a future number of the Journal, with appropriate illustrations. Mr. Syer Cuming read the following paper : : "On the Pan Cases of India.”—“ It has not unfrequently happened that various specimens of art have been laid before this Association with not only apocryphal, but at times entirely erroneous, designations. A brazen cornet, now produced by Dr. Pettigrew, falls into the latter class, for it has been presented to him as a rest or socket, into which the shaft of the horseman's lance was placed; but, so far from its appertaining to warlike accoutrements, it belongs to the peaceful occupation of chewing, not tobacco, but the compound known in Hindustan under the title of khili. This compound consists of the nuts of the supari, or areec or areca palm (Areca catechu, Linn.), cut into quarters, and wrapped in the pungent and aromatic leaves of the nag-bel, or piper betle,' which leaves, previously to being used, are covered with a thin layer of exceedingly fine shell-lime, called chunam. This coating is employed with a view of preserving the flavour of the nut and leaves longer in the mouth, and probably also as an antacid. The natives of India are almost constantly chewing this compound; they swallow the saliva tinctured with the juice, and eject the rest. The use of the khilī soon gives the inside of the mouth a tinge of red, like blood; the teeth become dark, but it is said to preserve them, to sweeten the breath, and give a healthy tone to the stomach. Gerarde, in his 'Herball, or General Historie of Plantes', says, 'the fruit of Areca, before it be ripe, is reckoned amongst the stupefactive or astonishing medicines; for whosoever eateth thereof waxeth drunke, because it doth exceedingly amaze and astonish the senses'. The khilī is in some degree to the natives of the East Indies what opium is to the Chinese and Turks; it dulls the sense of pain, both mentally and bodily, and entrances the mind in a working day-dream of delight. The areca nuts are introduced on visits of ceremony, the betel leaves on such occasions being secured by cloves passed through them, and the favourite compound is handed to the guest on an elegant salver, as a signal that the time for departure has arrived. "The specimen belonging to Dr. Pettigrew is a fine example of a păn-bottă, or cornet for betel-leaves, and is of Bengalese manufacture. it is of brass, measures 7 inches in length, and is engraved in a rich and elegant style, reminding us of the decorations seen upon armour and other works in metal, of the age of Elizabeth. To one side of the rim, which surrounds the mouth, is attached a short chain of ornamented links, to the end of which is secured a tube, through which was passed a cord or narrow belt for suspension. When the whole khili apparatus is complete, it consists of the brazen cornet for the pan, or betel-leaves, a large razor-shaped knife for dividing the supārī, or areca-nuts, a small box, like a cascabel in form, for the chunam, and sometimes a pair of tweezers and a bodkin-like instrument, and with these items is a long net bag, in which the nuts are carried. Examples of the complete paraphernalia may be seen in the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society, and also in that of the United Service Institution; and I would direct special attention to one in the latter establishment, used by the Cossiahs, 1 Nag-bel is the Hindustani name for the entire plant, the leaf is called pan. Philip Baldæus, in his description of the island of Ceylon, speaks of the Bellales carrying their betel and areca in a bag called maddi. near Sylhet, in Bengal, as affording corroborative evidence as to the purport of the specimen now exhibited. "A pān-bottā, a good deal like the one under consideration, was exhibited to the Association some months back, but not in its pristine condition, for it had been mounted as a handle to a large mediæval seal. Although a straight cone is the usual shape of the brazen betel cornet, it is not invariably so, for Mr. Crofton Croker possesses a rare example of one resembling a short ox-horn in figure. The form of the pān-bottā would lead to the belief that a natural horn was anciently employed for the purpose of holding the betel-leaf. The specimens which we have hitherto noticed are all of metal; but other materials are used in India in the manufacture of receptacles for the betel-leaf and chunam. I now exhibit a beautiful kevon-eet, or betel-box, of red japan ware, from Laos, a kingdom of eastern India, subject to Cochinchina: it is cylindrical, stands about five inches high, and is rather more than five inches in diameter. The box contains two lifts or trays; the one, one inch, and the other, one and a half inch deep. The rim of the cover is so deep that it comes within one and a half inches of the bottom of the box. The ground-work of this specimen is formed of strips of bamboo, woven together, as thin and light as possible: this is coated with varnish, paste, etc., and the whole covered with varnish, called thit-tsi, i.e., wood-oil, of a bright vermillion red, like sealing-wax. There are thin lines of bamboo round the box, which have the appearance of narrow bands of gilding. This specimen exhibits the shan yowan-tho, or shan, i.e., Siamese engraving, which is effected in the following manner :-The artist holds the box on his knees with his left hand, and keeps his graver (a needle tied to a stick) almost motionless in his right; he then dexterously turns the box by the help of his knees to meet the graver; the hollows are then filled up with the black. "Before us is also a vessel for holding the chunam, or fine slacked shell-lime, from Ceylon: it is formed of an orange-shaped gourd, the rind being tooled out in a lattice pattern, with a cross at each intersection, the incised lines being filled up with some black substance, producing a coarse species of niello-work. "The razor-shaped knife,' forming part of the appendage to the pān-bottā, has already been mentioned; and it will be well now to say a few words regarding the nippers used in the division of the areca-nuts, for they are frequently sold under the terrific title of knives for cutting out the tongues of criminals. The nippers vary in length from three to fourteen inches, and consist of two limbs, moving on a hinge or pivot at one end. The upper limb is provided with a sharp blade; the lower, 1 At a subsequent meeting, Mr. Scott produced a specimen of this kind, and Mr. Pettigrew, examples of chunam, of different colours, used at Madras as plaster for the walls of their habitations. It takes an exceedingly fine polish. |